Wilma heads north

Hurricane Wilma was moving northeast at 53 mph on Tuesday, with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph and gusts of 138 mph.

Touring flooded streets

On Oct. 24, 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma,Collier County police and fire officials used a "swamp buggy" to tour flooded streets in Everglades City, Fla. The storm cut across south and central Florida, leaving more than three million homes without power.

Wilma in Naples

Hurricane Wilma's fierce winds and torrential rain pounded Naples, Fla., early on Oct. 24, 2005. An Air Force reconnaissance plane measured Wilma's wind speed at 120 mph, indicating the storm has weakened slightly since it hit landfall, at 6:30 a.m. EST at Cape Romano, about 20 miles west of Everglades City, according to Eric Blake, an official with the National Hurricane Center. Wilma is still powerful enough to rank as a Category 3 storm.

Wilma departs Florida

In this satellite image, Hurricane Wilma gets last licks in in south central Florida on Monday afternoon before heading northeast into the Atlantic.

Wilma's path after Fla.

The storm's projected path as of about 2:30 p.m. EST Oct. 24.

rescue workers in Vedado, Cuba

Rescue team members wade through the water during floodings in Vedado, Havana, on Oct. 24, 2005, after Hurricane Wilma swept through on its way to Florida. Coastal villages and entire neighborhoods in west Cuba, including Havana, suffered their worst flooding in 12 years.

house gets battered in Cuba

Winds battered Boca de Galafre, Pinar del Rio province, Cuba, on Sunday as Hurricane Wilma come closed in on the western part of the island.
Reinvigorated after a deadly strike on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, Wilma roared Sunday toward Florida where storm-weary U.S. authorities ordered widespread evacuations. Cuba, which felt the brunt of the storm on Sunday, evacuated more than half a million people from its western provinces.

semi truck with generators

Cingular Wireless assembled more than 700 generators to prepare for landfall of Hurricane Wilma. These generators are used to maintain wireless signals during power outages. There also were almost 600,000 gallons of extra fuel on standby if needed. Cingular Wireless collected equipment from all over the Southeast at staging areas like this one near the Lakeland Airport in Lakeland, Fla., on Friday.

downed tress in Cancun

Downed trees littered the of streets of the coastal hotel's area in Cancun on Sunday after being hit by Hurricane Wilma. Although heavy rains had subsided as the hurricane drifted northeast, strong winds continued to blow and local officials said public services in the region had been devastated. Looters on Sunday raided electrical, clothing and food stores in that Mexican resort city. Scores of people waded through flooded streets to steal televisions, washing machines, bicycles and other household goods and food from shops in the aftermath of the storm. Mexican authorities said eight people were reported killed and two remained missing on the Yucatan peninsula as a result of the storm.

water heat

In order for a hurricane to form or gain strength, the ocean surface temperature must be 82-degrees Fahrenheit or warmer. On Oct. 20 the yellow, orange and red areas in this Aqua satellite image indicate areas where the water temperature was 82 degrees F or warmer. The ocean surface temperature surrounding Wilma was about 85 degrees F at the time.

wind speed

Weather forecasters predict that Wilma's wind speed will increase in the near term, then gradually drop.

record-setting Wilma

hot tower

In this schematic, "hot towers" reached into the sky as Hurricane Wilma set a record for the lowest atmospheric pressure. Depicted from satellite observations, the hot towers suggested a powerful heat engine inside the storm--and its potential for growth.

movie from GOES satellite

Bill Detwiler is Managing Editor for ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic Pro and the host of Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. He was most recently Head Technology Editor for TechRepublic. Prior to joining TechRepublic in 2000, Bill was an IT manager and desktop support technician in the social research and energy i...
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